More of a novelty than anything else, the Dictionary of Imaginary Places is just that... a big fat alphabetized compendium of places that exist only iMore of a novelty than anything else, the Dictionary of Imaginary Places is just that... a big fat alphabetized compendium of places that exist only in legends and myths and novels and other stories. It's the kind of book that aspiring novelists put on their coffee tables to impress other aspiring hipster novelists.

"What's with all those sticky notes and penciled in remarks?"

"Oh, you know. Research. Annotations."

"And this whole sheet stuffed in there?"

"I was trying to see what it would look like with my Imaginary Place in there."

It's a good time. And a bit of a guilty pleasure. And it's useful if you need to quickly brush up on who resides at Locus Solus, or the location of Valinor in relation to Middle-earth, or which countries surround Oz. But if you want to get in-depth, best to put down the Dictionary and dig into primary sources....more

• 1st: "Swarm" — reeeeeally liked; I can see why it's so popular and well known — reminds me of Blindsight — excepSHORT VERSION: (not a real review)

• 1st: "Swarm" — reeeeeally liked; I can see why it's so popular and well known — reminds me of Blindsight — except that Blindsight was probably in-part inspired by this...?• 2nd: "Spider Rose" — reminds me of that PKD story "Beyond Lies the Wub"• aspects of the main novel (Schismatrix) cued in my mind visions of: "this is Neuromancer on extraversion" (but mostly I think that b/c they're contemporaries?); also cued: "smatterings of this show up in Accelerando" (but maybe they're just sharing tropes and/or formats? arcs?)• I think I need a re-read to unpack it and put it all back together

--A note about this edition: it's an omnibus—and as such it contains Sterling's novel (Schismatrix) plus all the short stories in the Shaper/Mechanist milieu....more